Israeli student Omri Moyal, who is studying in Dunedin, has
been following a devastating forest fire near his home town
through social media sites. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
An Israeli student in Dunedin is keeping a close watch on
the massive fires raging near his former home, frustrated at
being unable to help the effort to quell them.
Omri Moyal (22), who is studying English and plans to begin
study at the University of Otago next year, said the brother
of a close friend was believed to be one of 36 to have died
on a bus that was engulfed in flames.
News reports had described those who died as prison guards,
but Mr Moyal said in fact they were involved in a course for
prison guards.
International news reports last night said the flames had
forced 12,000 people from their homes, levelled a village and
threatened to cause irreparable harm to one of Israel's few
forested areas.
The fire was still burning out of control last night.
Mr Moyal said he had been following the event through his
friends on Facebook who were helping fight the fire, posting
on the site after getting home from the firefighting effort.
Their reports were that the scene was "really, really
horrible, the worst thing you could ever, ever imagine; like
the end of the world".
The area had been subject to strong winds, there had been no
rain for the past month, and humidity was very low.
The fire fronts are across a forest south of Haifa, a city
similar to Dunedin with a core population of 120,000, but
surrounded by settlements that made the broader population
closer to 200,000.
Mr Moyal's father, who lived north of the forest, was helping
in the effort to fight the fire.
His mother and sister, who lived in Megadim, near the coast
west of the fire, had been evacuated and were safe.
"I'm worried about my friends; they're not used to this kind
of fire."
"It's frustrating. I've been volunteering all my life, [and]
in the army, and I can't do anything."
Apart from the loss of life and property, Mr Moyal said the
loss of the forest was also a tragedy.
"I've been walking in this forest all my life.
"It's one of the most beautiful places in Israel."
While Beit Oren, a community of about 10,000 people, in the
middle of the forest had been evacuated, nobody had heard
from a nearby small and isolated community of about 20
people.
Mr Moyal said he had planned to go home at Christmas, which
he would still do, though "not under the same circumstances
as I planned".
- david.loughrey@odt.co.nz
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